Communism In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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“Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most well-known postmodernist, satire, dark comedy, and science-fiction writers of our time, with his science-fiction works being more famous for works amongst authors and hardcore science-fiction fans. One of his most famous pieces was a science-fiction short story published in 1968; it was called “Harrison Bergeron.” The setting of the story takes place of the dystopian future in the year 2081, where the United States of America has established and enforced the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments where everyone has been declared equal, and those who are superior to others are given handicaps such as lead ball bags and masks to be “equal”. These insane and humiliating “handicaps” are used…show more content…
The world portrayed in “Harrison Bergeron” is similar to Communism; how everyone is forced have the same benefits and standards, no matter whoever had the better education, job, skill, or talent. According to Linda Labin in her examination of Vonnegut’s style and theme showed that Vonnegut wanted show a society that has fallen to lowest denominator, thus having to handicap the exceptional individuals; those would include the nonconformists and dreamers. The conformity shown in the story can be a reverse version of Nazi Germany, where Germany wanted to purge the “inferior” beings so that only the “superior” beings are left in society, US in 2081 wants to weaken the “superior” beings so that the “inferior” beings remain the main…show more content…
Vonnegut’s pessimistic attitude is geared harshly to the ideology on how everyone should be the same with no winners or losers, all having to succumb to being merely mediocre. When Harrison Bergeron reveals himself, it is at this point we are seeing Kurt Vonnegut’s voice and opinion being emitted from Bergeron. It reveals that Vonnegut being like Bergeron would die rather than continue to abide by a society sullied by hideous and unnecessary laws of

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